Horrible Experience with this company. I would never rent from them

again. In my opinion, the RV we rented was not properly maintained. We were lucky we made it home safely.

August 2010, my family and I took a family vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC. We rented a RV from El Monte RV of McKinney, TX. We rented RV expecting to travel 2400 miles. 1200 miles from Dallas to Myrtle Beach, SC and 1200 miles back to Dallas. As soon as we pulled off the lock noticeable problems were seen: cabinet doors not staying shut, hood above bathroom not sealed. It was dried and cracked and flapped up and down. However, we made first leg of trip ok. On the way home, with 738 miles left, the right passenger rear tire blew. We were on I-20 W 15 miles from the Alabama border in the left hand lane. We heard a loud boom. My husband struggled to keep control of vehicle. Vehicle lost power and we were forced over to the side barely making it off the busy interstate on the left hand side. We immediately called El Monte Customer Service. They didn't seem to understand the situation. They just assumed it was a normal flat tire. They said they would call us back and we could drive slowly to the service station they found for us. My husband then tried to explain that we couldn't go anywhere. We had NO POWER. He could put the gas all the way down and we went NOWHERE. A service company drove to us within 20 minutes. It was not just a flat tire. It was a bad tire that blew and took out the exhaust. The exhaust was completely mangled. When the tire blew, the tread peeled and wrapped around exhaust causing alot of damage and burning. After 3 hrs of semi's going by rocking the RV with 3 scared kids inside, rv falling off the hitch, getting spare tire on and untangling exhaust enough to drive to the next exit. The service guy followed us to next exit to cut exhaust so we could make the rest of our 738 miles home. The service guy was very helpful. He told us the tire was bad and in no way was it our fault. If we had any problems, to give him a call. When returning the vehicle, we expected we would be reimbursed for expenses incurred and reimbursed for something for what we had to go through to get back home. That was NOT what happened. Instead, the manager told us it was our fault and that we were responsible for all the damages to vehicle. He accused us of running over something causing the tire to blow and all the underside damage. He threatened to charge us for all the damage and even charge for loss of time to rent the vehicle while being repaired. I couldn't believe it. We were being accused of actually causing the damage due to a bad tire. We did absolutely nothing wrong and were being held responsible for them not maintaining their vehicles properly. This is still in progress. We are contacting a lawyer and plan on fighting this. I just wanted to get the word out. Be careful when renting from this company. If you do, please check all tires and make sure they are safe. Do NOT assume they are.

I have pictures. Please email if you want to see them. Thanks!